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Marpholones
"''Burn away the dark in my soul, O Lord of Light and Heaven, and chase off the lies in my heart, so that I may be but your humble servant on this plane so enamored of sin." ''- Cantations 12:6, The Book of Truth Also known as the Sun God, Lord of Light, King of Kings, God-Father, Sunrise King, Lord of Eternal Life, Heavenly Father, God of Illindore, Life-Giver, Lord of Heaven, Eternal King, and most fittingly, the God of Many Names, Marpholones is the father god of the Valamari pantheon, and His domain is light. The eyes of Marpholones pierce every shadow and see through every deception. He is the bringer of each new day as He lifts the sun into the sky on His own back. He is a god of beauty and artistry, teaching that art is a vehicle for the soul's improvement. His clerics are enlightened souls infused with radiance and the power of their gods' discerning vision, charged with chasing away lies and burning away darkness. Father of the gods Marpholones was the first of the Valamari gods. Before Him was nothing, and after Him there shall be nothing. There was a time when darkness and the Lord were all there was, but even a god grows lonely. That's why He created the sun, lifting it into the sky on his own back to create light in the dark universe. With this burning fire came the first sight, but there was nothing to see, nothing to love. So Marpholones conjured all of the unspent love in His divine heart and it manifested in the form of a beautiful goddess, Tirena. The first recipient of Marpholones' unending love, Tirena became His wife and His greatest support. From Her womb would be born all the gods of the Valamari pantheon and by proxy man himself. Hinodese Tradition The Hinodese follow different religious rites to the daughter kingdoms of the Empire of Valamar, but a definite connection may be drawn between the Valamari Marpholones and the single god of Hinode: Mafinaiko. Mafinaiko is the goddess of the sunrise, spinning the world in her hand to create the cycle of day and night. She birthed mankind from her holy womb by the power of her thusly unspent love much like Marpholones did with Tirena. In Hinodese tradition, the firstborn of Mafinaiko was the first Emperor, and so have his descendants been of that sun-blessed lineage. The Founding of the Holy Church of Valamar In the old days, when Valamar was just one of many Almadheen city states, the people followed false idols in temples of sinful hedonistic lies. The city was morally bankrupt, a constant orgy of pain and violence. Men, women and children would fight over each others bodies, murdering one another in a desperate effort to offer limbs and human hearts as sacrifice at the altar of this demon prince or another. The Old King watched on in perverse delight as his people tore one another apart, killing, secreting, stealing and fornicating in his streets. One would have expected Marpholones to look elsewhere to reveal Himself to mankind, but it was the people of Valamar that most urgently needed His love. And so the Lord found one man in all of Valamar that could deliver His divine message: A warrior by the name of Kleesius Fain who held himself to a code of ethics unheard of in the world at that time, the first code of chivalry. Fain saw Marpholones appear to him in the sky whilst riding his steed in the eastern marches of Valamar (which he was wont to do, to avoid the sin of the city) and fell from the horse in wonder of that majestic being. The Sun God then revealed to him the truths of the world, moral lessons and a message of divine love. Everything Fain heard rejected all he had been taught by the Dark Priests of the Demon Princes of the Old Valamari Temple for all his life, but he had always known in his moral heart that all Marpholones told him was truth. When the Valamari warrior accepted the message of God, he was straight way knighted as the first knight in all of Norospire by the God-Father Himself. Sir Fain returned to Valamar with the message of the God of Light, but most rejected it as they knew not in their sinful hearts how to love. In defeat, Fain returned to that holy place where the Lord had first appeared to him and cried a cry of despair. His god took pity on him and delivered to his faithful knight the Sun Scepter of the Sun God which could reveal the true glory of Marpholones to his people. He also blessed the knight with the power to perform miracles, so that Sir Kleesius Fain would also become the first Paladin. Once again Sir Fain rode into the city of Valamar, this time empowered by his Lord's glorious majesty. The sun itself followed him into that city, drawn by the Scepter. It drove out the darkness of night and brought in a day so bright that all the world's sin was naked to Heaven. The people cowered before such perfection, as they knew not whether he who stood before them was man or god. Murderers, thieves, prostitutes, partakers of aromatic reeds, and all manner of sinners threw themselves at his feet, begging for swift judgement. "Judgement thou shalt receive," answered Fain, "but not in such a manner as ye might expect." Dismounting his horse, the paladin laid benevolent hands on the sinful, showering them in divine light. The people were healed of their sinful sickness and delivered into the embrace of God. His voice boomed for all the city to hear "I judge ye pure and good, deserving of love. I judge ye sons and daughters of our perfect Lord hight Marpholones god of the sun above, who reigns now in Heaven and smiles with delight upon His delivered people. For thou art a chosen people and thy fate, should ye accept His love, lieth at the side of thy loving Father." Those who had not already come to Fain for forgiveness watched in awe as he cured the ailed and injured, even brought those so near to death back into life. Soon they too, followed the paladin, shouting praises of Marpholones' glory. With righteous anger they tore down the altars of their false gods and marched towards the Great Palace. When he reached the palace, the entire population of the city had followed Sir Fain and the sun. But even when presented with such righteous glory, the Old King of Valamar could not abandon his own perceived glory. In anger, he struck at Fain with his demonic blade called Nastura. Fain raised the scepter to block the strike and in a flash of light, the Old King disappeared. With all the sin cast out of the city, Marpholones appeared again to the knight and declared him the new king of Valamar. A new age of peace and holiness was ushered in by the rule of King Kleesius Fain. During his reign, the Righteous King wrote many books of the Book of Truth and founded the Church, which sang cantations of praise to Heaven, to Marpholones and the pantheon of His godly children. Orders of Paladins and Clerics were taught by their respective gods. When the city had become the holiest place on Norospire, the Lord appeared again to King Fain and congratulated him on his success and servitude, but said that it was unfair that the Holy Word be kept in Valamar alone. But he also said that the kings of man were all as proud as the Old King of Valamar, and that they must be cast out by force as he was. So the first Holy Crusade was declared, and soon the entire Almadhara Desert had been brought in to the new Valamari Empire. The king took to wife a woman from the city of Al-Wadeer, called Zahraa. Queen Zahraa gave her king three sons and three daughters in the following years, and all six of them were children of such charming disposition that women from every city would come to weep at their smiles. The people of the Almadheen cities rejoiced to be ruled over by so benevolent a ruler as King Fain, and to praise such a loving pantheon as Valamar's. But in places far from the capital, the love of Marpholones was not so obvious and the faith of some failed. The Death of King Fain Even as the Empire thrived, there were people in the south who wished to return to the sinful ways of their old demon gods. The most prominent of these were the people of Gantala. The time came when a Gantale heretic slew the king through betrayal. The man had claimed to be sick and when the kind king attempted to heal him, he reached around and stabbed him in the back. It is said that after this tragedy, it rained all over the world for five days as the gods wept. The ensuing floods wiped clean the lower land of Gantala, avenging the fallen king. Women all over the Empire wailed and men came from all cities to stand vigil over his body as it was lowered to its grave at Fain's Hill, where he had first beheld the majesty of Marpholones. Fain's eldest son, Prince Jarryah, ascended to the throne and did his best to take up his father's legacy. The Post-Valamar Church After many crusades and much proselytizing, the five human peoples of the Norospire mainland were all brought into the Empire, and missionary work in Hinode was gaining traction. But the noble houses of Valamar returned to their hedonistic old ways and tore the Empire apart in the civil war which would become known as The Fall. As the Tiefling regime took over and demon worship replaced the Church, people rose up behind paladin knight Sir Pius Federico in the Glorious Revolt. The revolt ended the reign of the Empire and instated Kingdoms based on the geographic locations of the archaic tribes and language groups of Norospire. Yet, the Church endured albeit in several differing forms. The various kingdoms and provinces hold different gods in varying degrees of reverence, based on cultural beliefs. Illindore holds perhaps the most accurate church to the archaic Valamari church. The main difference is a bit too much focus on the Sun God and His wife the Fervent Goddess. They also take a generally more aggressive stance toward non-human races (The Empire treated them with indifference as they weren't seen as a threat or a priority by the church), as Illindorian clerics tend to blame non-human cultural influence as the cause of The Fall. There are even some in Illindore who wish for a return of the Empire. It is generally accepted that Marpholones turned away in disgust from His people after The Fall. Now only the most faithful are welcome in the kingdom of heaven, those who work tirelessly for His glory. The Clerics of The Faith hold hope that one day the cantations of the Church will be heard all across Norospire as they once were, and the people of the gods will be saved again.